BALTIMORE — Police are now investigating after a 16-year-old student was gunned down outside his high school during school hours.
It happened inside Joseph Lee Park right outside Patterson High School.
16-year-old Izaiah Carter was the student who was shot in the head Monday afternoon.
RELATED: Patterson High School student shot, killed at Joseph E. Lee Park
People in this community said it’s urgent that leaders get a grip on the crime involving young people so it doesn’t happen again.
Baltimore City Police Commissioner Harrison said Carter was a another Baltimore City high school student to be gunned down this year.
“We talk about the prevalence of guns in our community and the ease of access, we talk about the willingness to use those guns and now yet again we're talking about young people using guns against other young people,” Harrison said.
Around 2:00 p.m., police responded to a shooting in the Joseph Lee Park. After shots were fired, multiple people were seen running from the area and Carter was found shot in the head.
Cesar Romero, who’s the president of the Bayview Community Association in the area, said the students often come to visit his store that’s just a few blocks away from the school.
“That should never happened. I knew something like this was going to happen. They said there was a shooting in the park, we need to stop this,” Romero said.
He said this is not the first violent incident involving young people within the past few weeks. One incident his board member witnessed.
“There was a stabbing on East Pratt and Kay Street, she was terrorized so we decided to set up a meeting with the principal to see if we can get a solution,” Romero said.
He said they sat down with some school and city leaders trying to develop a plan to combat the violence. Now neighbors are fearful of retaliation and fearful this shooting could open the door to more violence in the community.
“We don’t want the mayor to come here when somebody’s dead, we don’t also want the commissioner to come on the camera when somebody’s dead, and neither my city council. We want them to be involved with the community leaders to talk about the issues and working with our community leaders. This happened to quick so we have to act now we can’t wait we have to act and stop this crime right away,” Romero said.
Patterson High School was closed Tuesday because of what happened but there was counseling available for students and staff who needed it.
Police have not released any details concerning a shooter or a description of that person.
However, they’re asking anyone who knows something to contact Metro Crime Stoppers.
